Extra Extra!!

My peeps!! So tons of stuff has gone on since the last time I communicated with my fellow readers. Where do I begin...orientation week, new apartment, new roommates, hole in one, new people, new friends, new peers, new boyfriend (haaaa got you!).

Let's start with the hole in one since it just happened a few hours ago and I'm still stoked about it! Yes, the rumors are true. I did make a hole in one on the 3rd hole of the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. How crazy is that? Seriously...First hole in one ever, first swing of the day, first swing in months, first time playing Sawgrass...oh yea and at the intern golf outing...hahahha! Crazy!! Still cant believe it...but one things for sure, I had a blast and could not have asked for better timing to make my first Hole in One!!


For those of you who are not familiar with this great game that so many of us torcher ourselves with. When a person makes a HIO he/she has to buy drinks for all the witnesses. Lucky for me, I had about 31 (all of the interns) so off we went to the bar...it was good times and a great way to wrap up orientation.

5 second briefing: Sawgrass is home to The Players Championship (the one where I did parking for 5 days) and one of the most recognized Pete Dye golf courses in the world because of the island green 17th hole. It's also home to the PGA TOUR headquarters, an amazingly ginourmously grandiose clubhouse and a bunch of really expensive houses.

Anyways, enough with the technical golf talk. Let's get into the good stuff...did I get the room by myself or not? Well as most of you have already heard, YES I DID...All of your advice paid off...I got to the apartment complex early and snatched the room. I was kind enough to leave my roommies the master bedroom though. How nice am I? Once again, thanks for all of your support! Speaking of roommies...they're cool...I have a recent college graduate, rom Minnesota who forgot she was coming to Florida and brought warm clothes, and an aspiring graduate who turns 21 June 17th. The apartment smells funky but I got the hugest candle ever and so far she's doing an oka job.

It's like freshman year all over again! It's awkward at the beginning but now we're friends. I had to go get a "bed in a bag". You know, one of those bags that comes with a comforter, sheets, pillow champs, bed skirt and decorative pillows. Also much like freshman year, everyone was moving in with their parents while I roll up in the pathfinder with 2 suitcases and a backpack. Nikki's dad offered to help with ALL my stuff but I politely declined and he looked at me for a few seconds and said: "Your very independent, I respect that!!!". hahaha...I smiled, nodded and thanked him for offering to help and for the comment, but it only got me thinking about how much younger everyone is! Oh well, I quickly got over it. I saw a form being filled out by another guy at the internship which said he was born in like 78, so I'm good. Not oldest, second oldest though!

Like I mentioned before this week has been intern orientation week over here at the PGA TOUR. We had our reception on Wednesday afternoon at the clubhouse. It was the first time we all met but after the awkward first five minutes we relaxed a bit and began to mingle.

Here I can be seen mingling with April (purple) and Laura B. (Miss University of Florida)

This photo was "borrowed" from www.jacksonville.com

Thursday and Friday we had a jam packed agenda with speakers and fun activities galore...It's been great though. Right up my alley. I even knew some of the speakers and panelists to it was nice to see familiar faces. And the hole in one definitely put the icing on the cake (and a hole in my credit card).

I feel like I made the right choice coming here. Once again, it's all about timing. The PGA TOUR people did mention that they had 1,050 applicants and only picked 32 so I'm feeling pretty good. I've even missed my job...I wanna go back Monday...am I crazy?!?!? I need help!

We still have half day orientation tomorrow...we're going to The First Tee (my office) and then taking a tour of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Both of which I have already toured since it's where I work but being the team player that I am....I'm doing it all over again with my fellow interns. Speaking of the interns, I would love to tell you about all of them, but I'm really tired and thinking about calling it a night, it's been an eventful day.

It's been real so keep it that way.

Peace out,
LD

Meowwww

I'm not a cat person but Zoe was too sweet not to love...and photograph of course...She's very photogenic!

Hope these made you smile...xoxoxo

Cubicle Chronicles Vol. 1

Hey peeps!! Oka so every now and then I will share some internship anecdotes with you...Here goes my first:

Oka so today as I sat peacefully at my desk my worst nightmare came true! My boss asked me to calculate ratios and percentages of ethnicity and gender for a project we are working on. She asked me to do math....math! You guys know very well math is not one of my strong points.

I automatically freaked out but maintained my cool because I did not want her to sense my fear. To top things off my Internet was down so I wasn't able to google percentages and ratios. I felt like I was taking the GRE all over again! I was even being timed because she needed those numbers for a meeting in like 15 mins.

Anyways, I took a few deep breaths, sucked it up, kept a straight face, used some brain activity and jumped right into those numbers. Fifteen minutes and lots of scribbling later I reported the numbers successfully!! I'm glad to report that I overcame my fear of ratios and percentages. I even overachieved and gave her more numbers than what she really needed...wheeww, it was a close call!

Miss u guys!! xoxo

Peace out,

LD

Always an intern

Mi gente!! Que es la q?? Tanto tiempo...lo se..lo se...

I've been everywhere in the past two weeks but now that I'm semi settled into my new home for the summer let me tell you what's up.

To make a long story short, in 13 days I traveled to like 8 different places. After finals (can you believe I'm done with my first year of grad school? Crazy! Oka back on track)I drove from Athens to Atlanta where I boarded a plane to Jacksonville...after JAX we drove to Orlando and took a plane to PR where I went to Aguadilla and then drove back to San Juan to board another plane to Atlanta. We then drove to Chattanooga to see Herbie and my friend Paulette's new baby (who may I add is totally cute). After Chattanooga I drove to Atlanta to drop my mom off at the airport...after dropping her off I drove back to Athens to pack my stuff and drive down to Jacksonville the following day. Six hours and numerous rebel flags later I arrived in North Florida.

First day of work went by smoothly. The office is bigger than I expected...I met tons of very nice people though, but don't ask me anybody's name yet. Oh yea and I'm in a cubicle for the first time in my life. But I can't complain, the building itself is located on World Golf Village, right next to the World Golf Hall of Fame which is pretty cool.

I got an e-mail today with the information on my permanent summer residence...looks nice on the website...it's right on Ponte Vedra Beach so I will have some sort of playa close by this summer...yeiii! The spreadsheet sent by the TOUR indicated that there will be 3 of us living in apt. 917, however each apartment has 2 rooms with two twin sized beds in them. I wonder how they pick who gets to be in the room alone? If it's by seniority I think I win. Also, I haven't slept in a twin sized bed since the dorm life back in '03. I think they should pick by size. Biggest/tallest person gets their own room. I would win that category as well. But like Rosita said, it could be worst, there could be 4 people living there.

So I'm an intern again...I guess sometimes you have to take a step back to keep moving forward. Gotta do what you gotta do in this life. Parking, babysitting, trash pick-up, data entry...bring it! I worked at the PRGA for two years, after that you're pretty much set for anything that comes at you. And when I say anything, I mean ANYTHING. I think everyone should work at the PRGA for at least a week. That's all you need, a week. It can be the most irritatingly ungratifying yet rewarding work experience you will ever have. Never thought I would say that, but yes...rewarding!

Stayed tuned my peeps...I have a feeling this will be an interesting summer.

Keep it real!
LD

This is Zoe...she likes to hang out on my computer (Zoe is the cat, not my twin)

Patron for a day

It's Masters week my people! One of the most anticipated weeks of the year and this time I was there to witness the magic live and in person. Talk about starting the week off right. I had not been this excited since...wait...I don't think I had ever been this excited.

Under the "big oak tree" behind the clubhouse...apparently this is where the magic happens. By magic I mean interviews, business deals, famous people, etc.

Thanks to Lucy's guidance (my GPS) we made great time. We hit the road at 6:00am on the dot and got there right at 8:00. Weather was nice and cool, low traffic, short lines, free parking and what better time to watch Tiger Woods and Freddie Couples swing off the morning dew at Augusta National during Masters week?

The entrance was like a security checkpoint at the Atlanta Airport. Metal detectors and bag checks everywhere, good thing we traveled light. But once you get past that, boy are you in for a treat.

The place is remarkable. The course itself is unreal. Television does not do it any justice. The elevation changes, wow! I mean the place is sooo hilly. Bobby Jones had it right when he bought the former indigo plantation back in the day. Although, he wasn't right when he said "all players shall be white and all caddies shall be black." Guess who's rolling over on his grave?

Speaking of rolling over...I rolled over on the grass a bunch. That grass was so comfortable. I even took a nap on hole 9.

This isn't hole 9, but it was fun to roll around in this huge grassy area.

Going back to golf course talk...Every single structure blends into the nature of the grounds. Restrooms, concessions, golf shop, ATM machines, phones...Basically everything on site is green and brown. That’s all you'll see. I absolutely loved that...the cleanliness and natural beauty of the place is like no other.

Now I understand why some say it's like another world in there. One is truly stepping into hallowed grounds.

Other people say: "oh the place is so fake"..."they spend $5 million on maintenance and that's not realistic"..."they only have 300 members and the course is only open 5 months out of the year" and yadayadayada...But I say, so what? Walt Disney World has a huge puppet mouse walking around hugging little kids and nobody ever said he was fake.

Azaleas hadn't bloomed yet, but that's oka. It was truly a great opportunity and I'm just glad I experienced the highly venerated grounds, live and in person. Karen on the other hand, took a piece of Augusta National with her. Her life long dream of stealing a divot came true as we were walking out. One of the divot filling maintenance crew members threw a divot out in a trash bin, but little did he know that Karen had been watching him like a hawk. As soon as he tossed the divot that girl flew to the trash bin, grabbed it and put it in her zip lock bag that already contained other botanical assortments from Augusta National GC.

All in all, great times were had. To my golf buddies and family members from the island of enchantment: your presence was truly missed. We have to plan another golf trip ASAP.

Stay tuned...Next stop: The Players @ TPC Sawgrass.

Ciao for now.

LD

PS: More pics on facebook